A group called South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) is circulating an online petition that calls on Time to “open up a space for responses to the rhetoric” of the article. The article does link to Twitter, where 640 comments have piled up.

According to SAALT, the piece by Joel Stein uses humor “to mask an insular and misguided description of the growth of the South Asian immigrant community” while relying on stereotypes. “Most offensive is his remarkably blasé tone about the discrimination and hate crimes that targeted the New Jersey South Asian Community during the 1980s,” the petition says.

Parag Mehta, a Democratic political strategist who served as public liaison to the Asian American communities in President Barack Obama’s transition team, writes on his Facebook page that one of his big problems with the piece is Mr. Stein’s realization over time that all types of Indians, not just engineers and doctors, have arrived on American shores.

Mr. Stein’s column says: “For a while, we assumed all Indians were geniuses. Then, in the 1980s, the doctors and engineers brought over their merchant cousins, and we were no longer so sure about the genius thing. In the 1990s, the not-as-brilliant merchants brought their even-less-bright cousins, and we started to understand why India is so damn poor.”

Mr. Mehta adds: “The beauty of the American experiment is that you get our tired and our poor as well. And in those tired and poor, you get a slice of humanity – from the merchants and the thugs to the motel owners…”

Facebook pages, Twitter and blogs have lit up with similar commentary since Time published the column.

On the scale of apologies, “We’re sorry” is the strongest, “mistakes were made” is the wishy-washy version preferred by politicians, and “we regret you are offended” is the not-so-apologetic apology. That last option appears to be the route the magazine took with its official response Wednesday: “TIME sincerely regrets that any of our readers were upset by Joel Stein’s recent humor column ‘My Own Private India.’ It was in no way intended to cause offense.”

Time representatives couldn’t immediately be reached Thursday for comment on SAALT’s petition.

The column clearly aims for laughs – and even critics say they found parts funny. Very few commentators believe there was any racial malice behind Mr. Stein’s piece. Most see the column as clumsy or ignorant writing.

“It was clearly, CLEARLY intended to be sharply sarcastic and witty,” said a poster called “Abhi” on the South Asian blog Sepia Mutiny, which was filled with mostly angry comments. Keshav, another poster on the same site, called the response to his article “disproportionate faux outrage” and said Mr. Stein is being unfairly singled out.

On his Facebook page, Mr. Stein posted the following status update Monday: “Didn’t meant to insult Indians with my column this week. Also stupidly assumed their emails would follow that Gandhi non-violence thing.”

As we’ve noted previously, the piece draws parallels between the Edison situation and some not-so-funny subjects like the attitude toward immigration in the U.S. state of Arizona, which has a large Hispanic population.

Mr. Stein, who is a native of Edison, writes in the piece: “Sometime after I left, the town became a maze of charmless Indian strip malls and housing developments. Whenever I go back, I feel what people in Arizona talk about: a sense of loss and anomie and disbelief that anyone can eat food that spicy.”

Here’s why that’s sensitive: Arizona has recently passed a law requiring police to stop suspected illegal immigrants, and allowing arrests and potential deportation if they can’t produce papers. The stringent measure, which goes into effect July 29, has re-ignited the U.S. national immigration debate.

Just this week, the American Civil Liberties Union, which believes the law is unconstitutional, issued an alert to travelers who are headed to Arizona about how to handle themselves if stopped by law enforcement.

Let us know what you think. If Time or Mr. Stein come back to us, we will update with their comments.

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